The Gothic Bequest: Medieval Institutions in British Thought, 1688-1863 by R. J. SmithReview by: Frank M. TurnerThe American Historical Review, Vol. 94, No. 4 (Oct., 1989), pp. 1075-1076Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1906633 .

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Medieval 1075

percent fell at or within two years of a peak in the eleven-year sunspot cycle; several were in the season following major eruptions of volcanoes in Iceland, of Vesuvius, or of Etna.

Advocates of climatic determinism in historic events win a powerful ally in Alexandre. The great hardships, famines, and political upheavals of 1150-69, 1190-99, 1310-19, and 1340-49, in- cluding the Black Death plagues of 1348-50, all coincide with intervals of summers marked by cold, wet conditions or years of extreme drought, often accompanied by very harsh winters. The big departures from the average were often in succes- sive years. Tree-ring records from North America and North Africa show those same disturbed dec- ades. They are emphatically nonrandom.

RHODES W. FAIRBRIDGE

Columbia University NASA-GISS New York, New York

CLIVE FOSS and DAVID WINFIELD. Byzantine Fortifica- tions: An Introduction. (Unisa 1986, number 22.) Pretoria: University of South Africa. 1986. Pp. xxvii, 298. $35.00.

From the third to the fifteenth century, the Byz- antine empire struggled constantly to defend its centers of population, commerce, and administra- tion against a variety of external threats that changed in intensity and technological sophistica- tion. The Byzantine response to those threats is nowhere more clearly demonstrated than in the fortifications erected to protect key sites. Clive Foss and David Winfield here combine their knowledge of history, archaeology, and architec- ture to make clear the intimate relationship be- tween the technical aspect of fortification and the broader history of the era.

In part 1, Foss and Winfield outline the general features of Byzantine military architecture and the historical context in which they developed. The authors also attempt, without great success, to relate the development of Byzantine fortification to developments in the medieval West. Part 2 consists of a detailed discussion of the two most important Byzantine fortification systems: the walls of Constantinople and of Nicaea. In part 3 the discussion is extended to the Byzantine forti- fications of Asia Minor.

The authors discuss in a systematic manner the form and significance of selected fortifications erected in various periods. They first sketch the history of the site using contemporary written evidence, memorial inscriptions, and the research of modern scholars. They then discuss the defen- sive techniques prevalent in the period under

consideration with special attention to new mili- tary technology (the trebuchet, for example) and how those weapons were accommodated in the construction of defensive works. There then fol- lows a detailed discussion of the materials, ma- sonry styles, and construction techniques em- ployed at the site. The authors successfully demonstrate that examination of building materi- als, techniques of reinforcement, and other archi- tectural details makes possible both the dating of a fortification and some conclusions regarding the nature of the threat and the Byzantine military response at that time and place.

The technical details required to establish the chronological schema may befuddle readers with- out specialized training because the book contains no glossary of such basic terms as ashlar, cloissone, and voussoirs. The text, however, is supplemented by a generous selection of photographs, maps, plans, and illustrations that are remarkably clear and that effectively support the points made by the authors. A good bibliography and an adequate index are also provided.

Foss and Winfield succeed admirably in the difficult task of combining several disciplines to produce in one volume both an introduction to Byzantine fortifications for the general reader and an interpretive study for more advanced students of Byzantine history, military affairs, and architec- ture. We now have for the first time a comprehen- sive study of Byzantine fortification that integrates the physical evidence with the written sources to enhance our understanding of a particularly im- portant aspect of Byzantine civilization.

CHARLES R. SHRADER

Carlisle, Pennsylvania

R. J. SMITH. The Gothic Bequest: Medieval Institutions in British Thought, 1688-1863. New York: Cam- bridge University Press. 1987. Pp. xiii, 231. $39.50.

R. J. Smith has examined the manner in which medieval English institutions were discussed by historians, political theorists, clergy, and practic- ing politicians from the revolution of 1688 through the Reform Bill of 1832. The larger issue in his work is the manner in which history pro- vided a framework for public discourse before professionalization of the discipline.

The Glorious Revolution rendered ineffectual the seventeenth-century theories of the relevance of the medieval inheritance, such as immemorial- ism, Gothicism, and the Norman Yoke. Further- more, the emergence of abstract political theory tended to displace genetic or historical theorizing. What took the place of these earlier approaches

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1076 Reviews of Books

was the feudal explanation of the law, the consti- tution, and the church. In the process the Middle Ages became viewed as a kind of warehouse of useful political examples rather than as a deposit of normative imperatives. As the century passed, the Scottish writers drew the Middle Ages into their various patterns of conjectural history in which the feudal interpretation loomed very large in not only English but also human history. Fur- thermore, all of these developments made clear that constitutions and other institutions changed and modified over time.

Edmund Burke reasserted in a modified form the earlier Whig interpretation of the Middle Ages, but even with Burke the medieval inheri- tance was no longer normative. By the turn of the century, however, radicals such as Major John Cartwright were reasserting a new kind of imme- morialism, claiming that England did have an unchanging constitution. A number of the Ro- mantic writers and historians also looked in a normative manner to the Middle Ages. By that point there had arisen the ironic situation of early nineteenth-century Tories defending the modern settlement of 1688 and many radicals attempting to use the medieval inheritance as an argument for change.

The author has read very extensively and is clearly familiar with a wide-ranging set of sources. His presentation of materials and his arguments, however, are so compact and rely so heavily on the reader's equal familiarity with both primary sources and secondary works that they often prove difficult to follow. The book reads somewhat like a common room conversation where the disputants have been talking so long with each other that no one needs to explain individual positions. Authors of great complexity such as David Hume, John Millar, and Henry Hallam are considered in only a few pages with very brief quotations, and in some cases none, to support the argument or the asser- tion of the author. Nonetheless, Smith can and often does make very shrewd comments, such as those on Burke and on the use of history by Oxford Movement authors. One must regret that he did not write either a longer book where his evidence and arguments might be fleshed out or a shorter one in which he considered a particular period in more detail. Nonetheless, he has pro- vided an excellent point of departure for future considerations of the subject and has mapped the intellectual landscape.

One minor correction should be noted. The first use of the term "feudalism" was not in the 1 830s as Smith suggests, following the Oxford English Dictio- nary, but in the 1790s by Scottish writers, as Eric Hobsbawm discovered. (See Eric Hobsbawm, "Scottish Reformers and Capitalist Agriculture,"

in E. J. Hobsbawm et al., eds., Peasants in History: Essays in Honour of Daniel Thorner [1980].)

FRANK M. TURNER

Yale University

RAYMONDE FOREVILLE and GILLIAN KEIR, editors. The Book of St Gilbert. (Oxford Medieval Texts.) New York: Oxford University Press. 1987. Pp. cxiii, 385. $96.00.

Gilbert of Sempringham, who lived from about 1083 until 1189 and who founded the only native English religious order, stands out as a striking figure among the holy men of medieval England. He was canonized in 1202, and the Book of St Gilbert contains the texts assembled at that time, including his Vita, the letters concerning the revolt of the lay brothers, the Canonizatio, the letters concerning the canonization, and two collections of miracles. These texts are studied in the intro- duction, which also gives an account of Gilbert and the history of his order, which survived, in greatly reduced circumstances, until the dissolution in 1538-39.

Gilbert was a distinctive character who com- bined vision and courage with a sense of humor and a measure of self-will. He is more than once described as hylaris and iocundus, and, when he was in London awaiting trial for having supported Thomas Becket, he bought some tops to amuse his frightened companions. He was helped on this and other occasions by Henry II, who is said to have attributed the status and success of his realm to Gilbert's prayers and presence. Even after his death, Gilbert remained feisty, and once in a vision he refused to help a nun who had called on the devil, saying that she now belonged to the devil rather than himself.

The order of Sempringham in 1200 included ten so-called double houses of men and women and three houses of men. There were said to be fifteen hundred female members, who lived ac- cording to the Rule of Benedict, and seven hun- dred men, who followed the Augustinian Rule. The Book of St. Gilbert sheds much light on the new types of religious institutions in the twelfth cen- tury and their members, especially the lay broth- ers and their discontents. It also constitutes one of the first official dossiers for canonization and shows the concern of Innocent III for reliable procedures and witnesses.

Although the translation is for the most part smooth and accurate, some words are translated inconsistently, and a few passages are unclear. Letters patent were open rather than unsealed, and the troublesome phrases on pages 28, 34, and 42 surely mean that Gilbert did not confuse

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